A PARISH councillor has stepped down over a breach of conduct.

Josh King resigned from his post as the chair of the open spaces committee on Wroughton Parish Council, it was confirmed this morning.

The reasons behind the 62-year-old's exit are unclear after the parish council refused to comment further when contacted by the Adver today.

A picture posted on the Alexandra Park Residents Facebook page on June 11 showed Mr King - in a wheelchair - alongside parish council chairman John Hewer at a wreath-laying ceremony to mark 40 years since the end of the Falklands War.

It said in the post Mr King was a Falklands veteran.

In a statement on social media, Wroughton Parish Council wrote: “Wroughton Parish Council has been made aware of a breach of conduct concerning a former parish councillor.

“Mr King has tendered his resignation to the chairman on the June 21 which has been accepted and the parish council have no further comment to add at this time.

“A statement will be produced by the chairman at a later date.”

In an interview with the Adver in 2016, Mr King spoke of being diagnosed with motor neurone disease after serving as a paratrooper, a dice with death at the hands of the IRA in the 1980s and his fightback to good health after being hit by three strokes.

He told this paper his unit was ambushed by IRA fighters lying in wait in Belfast, with only four out of the 11 servicemen on duty made it out alive that day in 1985.

The dad-of-seven said the attack had riddled his body with 21 bullets, left him on death’s door, prone for two years and ultimately wheelchair-bound. But he said if reliving the ordeal meant he could be spared the three strokes which, 25 years later, would reduce him to a frozen shell, he would do so without hesitation.

Mr King said he suffered his first stroke in 2009 and two more in 2012 and 2013 left him severely disabled.

After months in limbo, he was referred to brain injury charity Headway Swindon & District in 2013. There, he slowly learned to form words again and feed himself.